I would like to do a NPT sorority tank, however, I have never used live plants before in a tank. After looking at several layouts on the tropica.com web site I realize I need help when it comes to plants. Would gravel work or should I use some other substrate?

Hmmmm It all depends on what look you would like to have. I would highly recommend a fert. stratum.

Fluorite is nice and comes in several colors and shades. It is very sand like.

I am personally using fluval plant stratum mixed with fulval shrimp stratum in one of my tanks. Its is nice and easy for the plants to have root growth. very airy though and some dislike how light it is. It is a tad difficult planting some plants due to its lightness.

My personal fave is eco complete plant stratum. No as light as fluval plant stratum and shows great growth and brightness in the foliage soon after I switched to it in one of my tanks.

If the local shop doesn't have these in stock, try asking them if they could order it along with their next order. Shipping substrate on your own will cost a bit as it is heavy. My local pet store orders it in, I call in before they place their order and pick it up the day it comes in. no shipping fee for me.

I would get play sand and potting soil (not sure on the brand of soil OFL would know though). What you do is line the tank with play sand and then put the soil on top and then put your plants in the soil. Once their planted you cover it in a good layer of sand. It'll take a while for everything to get chemically figured out but they look really nice and grow very nicely. OFL has done this in a 55 gallon an it turned out wonderfully

Regardless of the type of substrate you use and that is important-But the proper color temp lights are the driving force behind successful planted tanks-Most plant failures are due to wrong color temp lights-While we can see the light the plants can't to use it for energy/photosynthesis.

Lights that I recommend for plants-"Daylight" 6500k...watts vary based on length of bulb. Florescent light bulbs need to be changed every 12 months since the intensity can be lost over time even though they still shine-you can see it but the plants can't.

All I keep are the soil/dirt based or natural planted tanks that range from 1gal to 75gal. I use all different kinds of dirt in different tanks-Some I use either play sand, pool filter sand or small diameter gravel as the cap for the dirt/soil. The cap is to help keep the dirt/soil in place and you don't want to use a lot. I generally recommend/use half as much cap as I do base....meaning-if I use 1inch of dirt-my cap will be half inch deep.

When using dirt/soil along with proper lights-It is important to start out with enough of the right species of plants-That being-at least 3-4 different species of stem plants-enough to cover about 75% of the floor and 10-25% floating plants-like water lettuce, frogbit, duckweed and hornwort will work but it tend to get hair algae if too close to the light source or if the light are too high watts.

The soil based or natural planted tanks are great systems and once they are mature, the dirt is alive and plants thriving...It is as close to a natural ecosystem that can be created in a closed system-but its still a closed system and need some care but not like a regular substrate tanks plants or not......

Register Now

In order to be able to post messages on the Betta Fish and Betta Fish Care forums, you must first register.
Please enter your desired user name, your email address and other required details in the form below.

User Name:

Password

Please enter a password for your user account. Note that passwords are case-sensitive.

Password:

Confirm Password:

Email Address

Please enter a valid email address for yourself.

Email Address:

OR

Log-in

User Name

Password

Remember Me?

Human Verification

In order to verify that you are a human and not a spam bot, please enter the answer into the following box below based on the instructions contained in the graphic.